Bothwell Bridge, near Hamilton, was the site of the defeat of 5,000 ill-equipped, divided Covenanters by 10,000 government troops on 22 June 1679.

A memorial was erected in 1903, claiming, as most of the more modern memorials do, that the Covenanters were fighting for religious liberty. The older memorials state that the Covenanters were fighting in defence of the Covenanted Reformation.